YouTube has started rolling out a new commenting system powered by Google+
that highlights relevant content, connects conversations and lets video
creators review comments before they are posted.

Starting this week, comments from the video’s creator, popular personalities, engaged discussions about the video, and people in your Google+ Circles will be displayed at the top of the comments section under YouTube videos.

Users can choose whether to start a conversation so that it is seen by everyone on YouTube and Google+, or only by the people they have in their Circles. Like Gmail, replies are threaded so that users can easily follow conversations.

Video creators will also get new tools to review comments before they are posted, block certain words or save time by auto-approving comments from certain fans. This lets them spend less time moderating, and more time sharing videos and connecting with their fans, according to Google.

Here is what comments will look like later this year in a sample video from SoulPancake:

"When it comes to the conversations happening on YouTube, recent does not necessarily mean relevant. So, comments will soon become conversations that matter to you," said Google product manager Nundu Janakiram in a blog post.

"In the coming months, comments from people you care about will rise up where you can see them, while new tools will help video creators moderate conversations for welcome and unwelcome voices."

The new comment system will start rolling out this week and come to all YouTube videos later this year, according to Google. The system requires anyone commenting on YouTube to sign up to the Google+ social network – Google's rival to Facebook and Twitter.

According to data released by Internet analytics firm GlobalWebIndex, Google+ had 359 million active users in May, up 33 percent from June 2012.